Rebuild of N.W.T. climate research station ramps up

Efforts to rebuild a research station burned down in a late-season wildfire last year are coming together quickly, according to the director of lands and resources for the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation (LKFN). 

"It's like a train going 1,000 miles an hour," said Dieter Cazon, describing how things have been moving since the Scotty Creek Research Station was all but burned to the ground in mid-October. 

The wildfire gutted five of nine buildings at the remote site 50 kilometers south of Fort Simpson, N.W.T., destroying research equipment, lab space, sleeping accommodations and solar arrays, LKFN said at the time.

William Quinton, who founded the station back in the 90s, now pegs the damage to be worth about $2 million. 

Quinton, director of the Cold Regions Research Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., formally handed LKFN the keys to Scotty Creek just months before the fire — making it one of the first Indigenous-led research stations in the world.

Now, the First Nation is rebuilding a one hectare plot at the station's core. It's where the sleeping accommodations, kitchen, labs, storage facilities, showers and toilets are located — and there's water and electricity too. 

The cleanup started shortly after the fire. Cazon said in November, a crew of workers collected garbage and metal into piles. A tracked vehicle called a Hagglund made its first trip to Scotty Creek this month — hauling new equipment in and carrying garbage out. 

Cazon says May and June will be big construction months, with carpenters and electricians expected to travel to the remote site. He hopes the station will be ready for an opening in August. But, he said, Scotty Creek is going to stay closed to researchers all year. 

Outside Scotty Creek's core camp lies a 5-kilometer network of ground protection matting that leads to pieces of research infrastructure. Quinton said that equipment is up to universities and research centres to replace, in a process that he acknowledged is moving more slowly than LKFN's central camp rebuild, in part because of insurance claims.

"I'm really pushing things along, trying to push things along here. You can only go so fast with the institution," said Quinton. 

Although Scotty Creek will be closed to researchers this year — one group pitched their case and was able to travel to the site last week to repair a carbon flux tower. Built in 2012 by Oliver Sonnentag, an associate professor at the University of Montreal, the tower is part of a network of others across North America that gather information about carbon flux. 

"Flux just means like the flow of greenhouse gasses from the ground surface to the atmosphere and from the atmosphere back to the ground surface," explained Quinton. 

The tower is the first piece of research equipment being repaired at Scotty Creek. Since it could evaluate how greenhouse gases are fluctuating after the wildfire, Cazon said LKFN's chief and council recognized a need to get the tower back up and running as soon as possible. 

"It was just too important to not let happen," said Cazon.